Perry Work Report, February 28, 2013
University of Toronto Governing Council: Keep U of T Back Campus Green Petition
- Unions to Blame for Precarious Employment?
- TD Bank Sees Low-Wage & Middle-Wage Jobs Shrinking
- Towards a Peoples Budget
- Public policies for equality and social mobility in Canada
- Half the Work Force in ‘Precarious Employment’
- Kevin Page is a National Hero
- The Bitumen Cliff: Lessons and Challenges of Bitumen Mega-Developments
- Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2013
- No Change for Women in Top Leadership in Canada
- Emotional Labour: “Love in the Time of Privatization”
- Grad Students to the Barricades
- The Ph.D Bust
- The State of the Minimum Wage
- Recession Depression: Mental Health Effects of the 2008 Stock Market Crash
- Book of the Week
Unions to Blame for Precarious Employment?
Below are responses to the article in today’s Globe and Mail, February 28, 2013: “Unions must share the blame for precarious employment,” by Konrad Yakabuski
“Blaming unions for precarious jobs? Sigh. With your line of reasoning, misogyny should be the fault of feminists, too, right?”
“That must explain sectors like IT where unions are virtually non-existent yet outsourcing and temporary contract work are the norm (or better yet TFW’s!). I guess unions are also to blame for the TFW’s lurking at a McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s near you.”
“Companies only want flexibility for themselves and no one else, hence non-compete clauses in contracts, which are in many cases, illegal. They will also often collude and agree not to hire employees who attempt to hop from one company to another company in the same field. When they aren’t colluding, they’re suing. If they’re still not happy, they’ll apply for TFW permits.”
“It’s not worker unions that have the power mate.”
“Hilarious!
“More “blaming the victim corporate sponsored cut workers wages and government spending” bunk from writers in this rag. It’s not union contracts that are creating government deficits but tax cuts for corporations and the rich.”
“The tax burden is being shifted to workers, the poor, seniors, etc through regressive consumption taxes like the GST, HST, property taxes and elimination of a previous somewhat progressive income tax system. In this climate people are manipulated to support “tax cuts” which are accompanied by reduced social services spending.”
“It’s a blatant transfer of wealth from workers to corporations and the rich. This is the nature of a political economic system whose driving force is the maximization of profit and the concentration of wealth i.e. capitalism.”
TD Bank Sees Low-Wage & Middle-Wage Jobs Shrinking
“Low-wage and middle-wage jobs in Canada are shrinking as a share of the economy as job growth focuses more and more on high-skilled, high-end jobs, says a new report from TD Bank.”
“While the U.S. economy has seen a “hollowing out” of middle-wage jobs, and a relative increase in low-wage and high-wage jobs, Canada is only experiencing a boom at one end — at high-skilled end of the spectrum, TD said in a report that analyzed detailed data for 123 different occupations. “
“North of the border, the winners win more, and the losers lose more,” a chart in the report declares.” [Huffington Post]
TD Economics Special Report, February 26, 2013: Are Middle-Skilled Jobs in Canada Experiencing a Hollowing-Out, U.S.-Style? (8 pages, PDF)
The Huffington Post, February 26, 2013: “Hollowing Out of Middle Class Jobs in Canada: TD Bank sees Low-,Middle-Wage Jobs Shrinking.”
Towards a Peoples Budget
New OFL discussion paper rejects the myths of austerity and urges new public policy focus on jobs, growth, and public services. Ontarians are invited to participate in province-wide consultation.
OFL DIscussion paper, February 25, 2013: Green Paper: towards a peoples budget
Public Policies for Equality and Social Mobility in Canada
Author Miles Corak, Professor of Economics from the University of Ottawa, details the public policy drivers behind social mobility in Canada, and its links to equality of opportunity for Canadian citizens. The paper offers a series of innovative policy solutions that the federal government could take to ensure high degrees of mobility, and lower degrees of inequality.
The Canada We Want in 2020 Speaker Series, February 25, 2013: “Equality of Opportunity, ‘Public policies for equality and social mobility in Canada,’”by Miles Corak (32 pages, PDF)
Equality of Opportunity: a Canadian Dream? February 26, 2013 (23 pages, PDF)
Half the Work Force in ‘Precarious Employment’
“Barely half of people working in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas have permanent, full-time jobs that provide benefits and stability.
Everyone else is working in situations that are part-time, vulnerable or insecure in some way. This includes a growing number of temporary, contract and on-call positions. Jobs without benefits. Jobs with uncertain futures.
This significant rise in precarious employment is a serious threat – not only to the collective prosperity of the region, but also to the social fabric of communities.” [The Globe and Mail]
McMaster University, PEPSO and The United Way, February 23, 2013: Its more than Poverty: employment precarity and household well being (115 pages, PDF)
The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2013: “Action needed after study finds half the work force in ‘precarious employment," by Susan McIsaac and Charlotte Yates.
For more article and case studies see: PEPSO website (Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario)
Kevin Page is a National Hero
“When Kevin Page, Canada’s first Parliamentary Budget Officer, steps down next month after five years on the job, he’ll do so with a respect and admiration accorded few professional public servants. Not because he went above and beyond the call of duty (many do), or because he has been particularly outspoken on public matters (many are, especially whistleblowers). But because, like most professionals in the public service, he doggedly maintains that government should tell the truth, even — especially — when it refuses to do so.”
“In November 2012, seven months after the government introduced its austerity budget, the PBO could still find specific information on only 500 of the 19,200 jobs to be eliminated (7,000 are supposed to be lost through attrition).
“How, for instance, will the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ensure compliance with federal regulations on food safety while crash dieting on $19 million in cuts to its Food Safety program?”
“How will the $160 million cut from Aboriginal Affairs address the concerns of communities now responding to the Idle No More movement?”
“How will Health Canada triage the enormous cuts to its own programs? The government waves these worries away with the easy phrase “operational efficiencies.”
“Science and the environment have come in for particular attention. The Experimental Lakes Area, a world-renowned freshwater research facility that has proved the effects of acid rain and been instrumental in developing environmental policy, is eliminated.”
“Environment Canada labs dedicated to studying cancer-causing pollution emissions from smokestacks are shut down. The list goes on. Nor should anyone forget the loss of Statistics Canada’s long-form census to current and future knowledge. Evidence is the new enemy.”
“George Orwell once wrote, “In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Kevin Page is not a revolutionary, but if telling truth to power and, more importantly, insisting powerful governments tell the truth to those who elect them are heroic acts, then Kevin Page is a national hero.” [Toronto Star]
Toronto Star, February 22, 2013: ”Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page is a national hero: If telling truth to power and insisting powerful governments tell the truth are heroic acts, then Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page is a national hero.” by Gary Corbett
The Bitumen Cliff: Lessons and Challenges of Bitumen Mega-Developments
“The failure to carefully regulate the bitumen industry is putting Canada on a dangerous economic and environmental trajectory.
This study shows that the current bitumen path is creating the double threat: a “staples trap,” whereby the faster Canada exports its bitumen, the less diversified, productive and resilient the economy becomes;” and a “carbon trap,” which locks Canada into an carbon dependent development path, making the costs of future climate adaptation much more difficult.
It presents a wealth of empirical data indicating the negative side effects of unregulated bitumen developments for Canada’s trade, exchange rate, productivity, and income distribution performance and proposes a two-track approach to steer away from the “bitumen cliff.””[CCPA]
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, February 21, 2013: The Bitumen Cliff Lessons and Challenges of Bitumen Mega-Developments for Canada’s Economy in an Age of Climate Change, by Tony Clarke, Jim Stanford, Diana Gibson, Brendan Haley (101 pages, PDF)
“In a report to be released Thursday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Polaris Institute, the four economists, including Canadian Auto Workers stalwart Jim Stanford, echo one of the country’s great economic historians, Harold Innis, to warn against Canada becoming overly dependent on the extraction and export of raw resources – in this case, oil sands bitumen.” [The Globe and Mail]
The Globe and Mail, February 20, 2013: "The perils of Canada’s ‘bitumen cliff’," by Shawn McCarthy
Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2013
“The 55 organizations that make up Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2013 walk the talk when it comes to creating an inclusive culture in their workplace.”
The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2013: “How the best diversity employers for 2013 were chosen.”
The Globe and Mail, February 19 2013: “At these firms, inclusion and diversity matters.”
The Globe and Mail, February 19 2013: ”Canada’s best diversity employers for 2013”
No Change for Women in Top Leadership in Canada
“The Catalyst census, conducted every two years, continues to show minimal change in the proportion of women in the top echelons of Corporate Canada, with change so statistically insignificant it is difficult to conclude it reflects lasting progress.”
The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2013: Women’s slow climb to the top in corporate Canada,” by Janet McFarland
2012 Catalyst Census, February 19, 2013: Financial Post 500 Women Senior Officers and Top Earners Appendix 4 —Women’s Representation By Province/Territory
2012 Catalyst Census, February 19, 2013: Financial Post 500 Women Senior Officers and Top Earners Appendix 5 —Women’s Representation By NAICS Industry
“Despite high-profile news about gender gaps, equal pay, and women on boards, once again the needle barely budged for women aspiring to top business leadership in corporate America, according to the 2012 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors and 2012 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Executive Officers and Top Earners. ”
Catalyst 2012 Census of Fortune 500, December13, 2012: No Change for Women in Top Leadership
Emotional Labour: “Love in the Time of Privatization”
“There’s a reason members of the professional class can often be heard proclaiming that they work twelve-hour days because they love social media marketing so much they just can’t stop doing it.”
"Cultivating this identity is a requisite for keeping their job. They’re expected to live in an impossible state of continuous happiness, confidence, and passion or risk being replaced by someone who does a better impression of being a happy worker."
Should we be surprised that they are willing to pay for support in this in inhuman endeavor?”
Dissent Magazine, WInter 2013: Paying for Labors of Love ‘The Outsourced Self,’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild, By JUDITH SHULEVITZ Published: May 25, 2012 Love in the Time of Privatization By Megan Erickson
New York Times, May 25, 2012: “Paying for Labors of Love ‘The Outsourced Self,’ by Arlie Russell Hochschild,” By JUDITH SHULEVITZ
Grad Students to the Barricades
“Almost all universities, public and private, have cut back on support for actual research work, to refocus on more pressing tasks such as graduating more MBAs. From 1970 to 2008, the number of MBA diplomas issued each year rose from 26,490 to 155,637—and rose even more after the financial crisis, reaching 177,684 in 2010. At the same time, schools are hiring growing numbers of MBAs into their administrations.”
"Graduate student union organizers repeatedly encounter certain rhetorical roadblocks: unions are for workers, not scholars; my relationship with the university isn’t an employment relationship—I’m a student; I love what I’m doing and I get paid for it, it would be crass to complain. These responses are relentlessly non-pragmatic. They insist on the importance of semantics, allowing the utterer to avoid responsibility for a university system lurching into crisis."
Slate Magazine, Fall 2012: “Grad Students to the Barricades,” By Gabriel Winant
The Ph.D Bust
“The pattern reaching back to 2001 is clear — fewer jobs, more unemployment, and more post-doc work — especially in the sciences. A post doc essentially translates into toiling as a low-paid lab hand (emphasis on low-paid as shown below. Once it was just a one or two year rite of passage where budding scientists honed their research skills. Now it can stretch on for half a decade."
The Atlantic, February 20, 2013: The Ph.D Bust: America’s Awful Market for Young Scientists (and PhDs in engineering, the social sciences and the humanities)—in 7 Charts
The State of the Minimum Wage
“The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was in 2009, when it went from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour. Since then, the upward creeping cost of living has eroded the value of that wage. If it had been adjusted for inflation, it would be around $7.61 today. If the rate moves to $9 an hour, it will be the highest—in inflation-adjusted terms—that it has been since 1979.”
The Council of State Governments, February 22, 2013: The State of the Minimum Wage By Jennifer Burnett (3 pages, PDF)
Slate Magazine,February 21, 2013: “Minimum wage laws around the world,” by Heather Brady
Recession Depression: Mental Health Effects of the 2008 Stock Market Crash
“We find that the crash reduced wealth and increased depressive symptoms and the use of anti-depressants. These results suggest that sudden wealth losses cause immediate declines in mental health; for example, a loss of $50,000 of non-housing wealth increases the likelihood of feeling depressed by 1.35 percentage points, or by 8%.”
Russell Sage Foundation, February 2013: Recession Depression: Mental Health Effects of the 2008 Stock Market Crash (40 pages, PDF)
Book of the Week
Studs Terkel's Working: a Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Harvey Pekar ; edited by Paul Buhle. New York : New Press, 2009. 197 p. ISBN 9781595583215
UTLibraries link to catalogue record: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8752137
One of Terkel’s best-known books takes on new life in graphic form courtesy of the team of dyspeptic artist Pekar and editor Buhle (Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History, 2009, etc.), along with a crew of illustrators.
Terkel (1912–2008) was a fabulous storyteller of unadorned style, which may make some readers wonder why Working (1974) merits Classics Illustrated treatment. But the world is full of such small mysteries, as well as a larger one that Terkel pegged early on:
Why is it that people work when work, in so many of its guises, is just a series of “daily humiliations?” “To survive the day,” Terkel writes, “is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.”
Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.
This publication is protected by Canadian copyright laws and may not be copied, posted or forwarded electronically without permission.
Questions or comments: cirhr.library@utoronto.ca
Editor: Vicki Skelton
Designer: Nick Strupat
Copyright © 2010 Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. All rights reserved.